Bud on a Budget: What $20, $50, and $100 Buy at a Recreational Dispensary in Seattle

Bud on a Budget: What $20, $50, and $100 Buy at a Recreational Dispensary in Seattle Brett Konen

The amount of cannabis $20, $50, or $100 will get you varies widely depending on where you are, what you like, and how you shop. It depends on factors like market size, tax rates, whether you’re a recreational consumer or a medical patient, and what consumption methods you’re shopping for. That said, any of these amounts can go a long way at a cannabis dispensary if you do it right.

A few helpful tips: First, use Leafly dispensary pages’ menu tabs to research product selection ahead of time and make sure you like what you see before making a trip. When you get there, be sure to tell your budtender up front what your budget is: Matt, who helped me on my visit to Dockside, did a great job helping me stick to what I intended to spend and point out new products that fit within that window. Also, remember to account for tax. Washington state maintains a 37% excise tax on all cannabis products across the board, with a majority of that revenue going to public health programs. Most dispensaries will include the tax in product pricing, but if the prices you see listed seem crazy-low, that may be the reason.

I checked out Dockside Cannabis in SoDo to find out what $20, $50, and $100 will get you at a Seattle dispensary. Our price points are cumulative, so the images pictured at each successive level are in addition to all of the products seen before them.

How Much Cannabis Will $20 Buy?

A nice gram, 10mg edible, three packs of matches, and free joint crutches can be had for under $20 at Dockside. (Amy Phung and Julia Sumpter/Leafly)

At $20, my budget was relatively limited, so I spent the bulk of our budget on flower (choosing to go for one higher-quality gram rather than two grams from the bottom shelf), grabbed an inexpensive single-serving edible, and snuck in a couple freebies (and near-freebies) to fill out the cart.

What I got:

Cumulative total: $18.75

Why I bought it:

Grape Ape by Artizen | Artizen’s bright, bold packaging always catches eyes immediately from behind the counter, and since the brand that won our competition for the best Blue Dream in Washington state, I trust them to provide consistent high-quality cannabis. At $12, this isn’t a budget gram, but I’m willing to pay more when I can count on getting great value.

Lori’s Organic Salt and Pepper Potato Chips | There are a lot of sweet edibles out there, so this savory option, relatively new to the market, caught my eye right away. Turns out I discovered a new favorite: These chips are as tasty as any non-infused brand you’d pick up at the grocery store, and I could hardly detect any cannabis flavor at all. Even better, they were on sale the day I visited—I got a discount of $1.20 at checkout, so the actual price ended up being $4.80, a bargain for a single 10mg serving.

Matches and crutch cards | While I also carry a lighter, I still enjoy lighting my joints the old-school way, with matchbooks from my favorite places. And It’s always worth asking whether your dispensary offers any freebies; I wouldn’t have noticed the pile of complimentary crutch cards sitting new the register otherwise.

How Much Cannabis Will $50 Buy?

Two more edibles, a pre-roll, and dabs bring the total to just under $50. (Amy Phung and Julia Sumpter/Leafly)

At $50, you’ve got a lot more wiggle room. This price point let me add a concentrate, an award-winning soda, a CBD edible, and a pre-roll (complete with an awesome custom-designed strain sticker) to my initial spend.

What I got:

Cumulative total: $49.75

Why I bought it:

Orange Cream Soda by Olala | This infused beverage won Washington’s 2017 Dope Cup award for Best Liquid Edible, so I was all for trying it out. At $6, it’s also cheaper than most other THC sodas at Dockside.

Electric Lemon Concentrate by MJ Botanicals | To stay within my budget, I went with a concentrate on the cheaper end of the spectrum, and targeted a flavor I love in my dabbable extracts: citrus.

Swifts CBD Cannabees Honey by Green Labs | I always like to pick up a CBD-dominant product on my dispensary trips, and CBD honey is extremely versatile—I can add it to drinks, spread it on biscuits or toast, or savor it plain like a honey stick.

Tangie Pre-Roll with Sticker by Leaph | Having toured the Leaph facility and met the people growing this strain, I feel a personal connection to the brand and always keep my eye out for their products. I also like collecting the brightly colored, artist-designed stickers inside their flower and pre-roll packages.

How Much Cannabis Will $100 Buy?

Tack on a blunt, bath soak, and chocolate and you’ll land almost squarely at $100 including tax. (Amy Phung and Julia Sumpter/Leafly)

Unless I’m buying in large quantities for something like a baking project or a get-together, I rarely feel the need to spend more than $100 on a dispensary trip—I’d rather shop more frequently, and use those frequent trips to try a wider variety of products and maximize their freshness when I enjoy them.

With an additional $50 at my disposal beyond what I’d already spent, I splurged on products that aren’t necessary but are definitely fun: a cannabis-infused bath soak, a blunt to share with friends, and a colorfully painted mint chocolate square.

What I got:

Cumulative total: $99.75

Why I bought it:

Body Buzz Bath Salt Soak by Ethos | This product gave me an excuse to try something new, and I appreciate that their soak is made with full-flower extract that not only contains 60mg THC, but also includes up to 40mg of cannabinoids such as CBD, CBDA, CBN, and CBG, as well as additional terpenes.

Strawberry Cough Blunt by Seattle Green Bud | Since Washington doesn’t allow sales of cannabis products that incorporate tobacco, producers have gotten creative, wrapping “blunts” in other leaf material, such as cannabis leaves. Like the Leaph pre-roll, this product also comes with a bonus sticker.

Seagoat Mint Chocolate Square | With a goat icon and a splash of color across the front of this Ghirardelli-sized chocolate square, this product caught my eye even though the brand was new to me, and the fact that my budtender endorsed it sealed the deal. The squares are made with single-origin chocolate from Venezuela, and weigh in at 61% cacao.

A final spend: Not included on the receipt was my $5 tip, bringing the official total (including the $1.20 discount applied to the Lori’s chips at checkout) to $103.55. While tipping isn’t required, if your budtender is working with you through choosing a dozen cannabis products (or even a few) to fit your budget, they definitely deserve some appreciation. If you’re absolutely set on getting out the door under $100 total, skip that extra $5 chocolate and put the remainder in the tip jar.